


Rebellionbound - Book #2

by Anarchyopteryx



Series: Rebellionbound [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Aged up characters, Alternate Reality, Alternia, Alternian Revolution, Canon Compliant, Dystopia, F/F, F/M, Flushed Romance, Gen, In Character, Multi, No Smut, Pale Romance, Red Romance, Revolution, Troll Revolution, caste system, romance is in the background, so are the OCs, strong language/some ableist langage, this is not a shippy fic at all, what if
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-24 06:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/936680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarchyopteryx/pseuds/Anarchyopteryx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the death of a friend and destruction of The Disciple's sanctuary, a small pocket of resistance escapes the empire's grasp.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me if anything is a little off or if you found any mistakes, please.

All they did was run from one hiding place to another.

The ship was big enough to carry everyone. Two excursions from the caves brought back two hundred trolls. Their numbers had dropped to one hundred and fifty. A quarter dead from this infinitesimal force of resistance was quite a hit.

From the outside, the craft looked like a huge dark rounded triangle with bulges of windows on each corner and in the middle of the sides, with a port and some primitive weapons on the bottom. The craft was designed for all terrains. It had large public spaces, but no real bunks because it was so old, the recoupracoons dried up and broke down. Everyone slept in the sickbay, plagued by nightmares without the soothing sopor slime. Thankfully, the ship did not have a living engine and instead ran on a plain old power generator, like most small ships.

Before the caves were gassed and presumably bombed, Sollux had been working on hacking the surveillance devices and trackers on the getaway, rendering it silent and invisible. Stealing it was easy because the underwater hanger it was kept in was ancient and forgotten, no one really cared if an old ship suddenly went offline. It happened all the time as they rusted and decayed.

It had been retired for quite some time, it was at least one hundred sweeps old. Feferi managed to hire a single troll to steal it from an old hangar full of ships only kept for historical records. Her name was Cypsel Volans, a seadweller who lost her legs to a shark at a young age. When the ship was on autopilot, she could be found scooting around on a falldown slat or walking on her hands. Due to her disconnect to other violetbloods because of her disability, she felt no need to socialize with them or think of herself as part of the aristocracy. She insisted on wearing a pair of impractical and useless, yet cool flight goggles and an antique jacket that belonged to her ancestor. Flight was her outlet, keeping her as calm and steady as a moirail.

Apparently, the ship was flying by itself. She swerved around Karkat as he shuffled wearily toward the bridge. Suddenly, she spun around expertly on her back wheels, “Glad to see you're wearin pants.”

The mutant stopped in his tracks. He was never going to live that down, it was one of the most painful and most embarrassing moments in his life. “What do you want Volans?”

“Nothin.” The girl skated next to him. “When I ain't flyin, I'm bored. Everybody is waitin to hear your ennui-inducin speech.” She bit her cheek and squinted at him, “You know, I had to be clarified on who the leader was. I thought it was the pretty one with the ragripper tendencies.”

“You mean Kanaya?” On any other day, he would've fought with someone like her and defended himself. Today just wasn't one of those days. He had to force himself out of reclusion to do what he was about to do. Karkat did not want to deal with other people's shit.

“Yeah. You know what, leader guy? I feel nice today. Go show them what you got and I'll keep my trap shut and stop talkin about how lame you are.” Whap! She hit him with her wallop device, making him stumble. She skated away, hissing a laugh. Fucking seadwellers.

He imagined a younger instance of himself delivering the words he had planned and cringed. How ineffective and obnoxious he was. Worse, that six sweep old was certainly loitering around his crowded thinkpan. Yes, Karkat Vantas was a busy man with a lot on his nutrition plateau. Suddenly complicated personal relations, self blame and sudden losses didn't help at all.

Eridan crossed his mind one too many times. News streams came in every day, his old gossip pal's face was everywhere. At first he was very angry with him, but now all he wanted to know was why he did it. He loved her, didn't he?

Two grieving friends were hard to deal with. He hadn't spoken to Sollux, but he noticed him curled up in the dark corner of the sickbay, barely moving for days, except when someone forced water down his protein chute. Karkat had been too depressed and worried to do anything as well, and spent most of the time sleeping.

Kanaya hid her sadness very well, but that didn't stop him from worrying about her. She mostly stuck to Karkat and made sure he was eating and drinking, comforting him when he needed it, waiting for the searing pain in his head and torso column to subside.

Was she pale for him? Nah, her care was too feather soft to be true moiraillegence and no dangerous urges that must be quelled made themselves known, yet something else could tilt their ordinary friendship in that direction. But what of Nepeta? She finally confessed her red feelings, in a shy, awkward way. Karkat didn't even know what to say to her the next time they would meet. Any anger for her dissolved.

The doors to the rumpusblock opened. Karkat shook all these thoughts away, took a deep breath, standing as straight as he could. He took his place just inside the doors, on the only bare patch of floor in the block. 

Hushed gossip scattered through the audience briefly, but the man did not need to ask for silence, it was a gift.

If there was one thing he was good at, it was talking. Although he missed the mark on a friendly level, perhaps if he was loud enough they would hear him. That's how he did this when he was an adolescent. He was nearly an adult and needed to conduct himself as such. “I regret to inform you we lost fifty three of us and thirty six custodians.” He swallowed. All those faces out there... he could tell who was suffering, mostly the young ones who hadn't figured out that death was a part of Alternian life and those who got injured or inhaled poison. How he wished Terezi was there. In the middle of it all was Nepeta, sitting next to Equius and keeping him quiet, alongside his other friends. Sollux was looking better.

“This is inexcusable, I should have done something more to protect everyone.” Karkat didn't dare to ask for forgiveness, he couldn't forgive himself. The first people he forgave are those who made the deadly mistakes. “I wish-” Oh god, Karkat was beginning to berate himself over and over again. _Stupid ugly lazy shithead._ He shook those thoughts away. The leader had to keep it together and stop talking about how he feels.

“Anyway, the plan is that we're going to fly under the empire's evasion detection beacon, possibly for a long time. Currently, due to our captain's propensity to oceanic flight and custodian attachment, we're cruising along the coastline. There's abundant space on this ship, we could amass more of us and keep gathering lusi. On that subject, Tavros is locating those who aren't following us. We'll be picking them up once they are summoned and they will be placed in the lusi holding chambers with the rest of them.” One kid in the sickbay had been very annoying even though Tavros personally told him he had been communing with a creature that matched the description of their beloved squawkbeast. “We'll find your fucking lusus if they didn't die, alright? Just stop whining, you'll be reunited. If you were an orphan, you would've been notified.”

“Enough of that bullshit, on to what I gathered you here for. I've been wondering, how many of you have been angry over what you've seen?” Voices rose up. He gestured downward with flat hands. “I know, I'm pissed too.” Then, he dredged up that long dormant rancor and unleashed it. 

"For sweeps, we've seen it on our screens and more often than not, firsthand. Those who never had before now, you know what happens to people who know shit. At this time, we're all wanted by the authorities and to survive we must keep running, but we can't run like a bunch of pants-shitting cowards." He raised his voice, "You know what they do to people like us. How many of you have lived in fear of the drones? Don't you want to be free of that?" His silver hands swept toward the crowd. It was as if he sent a wave of energy through them, once more they piped up in agreement. 

"They hurt us, enslave us, murder us in a system of unnatural selection, and even worse, they spread misery through the stars as they rob natives of their homeworld. I've been thinking about this for a long time, and only one thing is sure to send the empire into vulnerable chaos." Karkat paused to make sure everyone was listening, to let his words sink in.

Karkat announced, "We must assassinate Her Imperial Condescension."


	2. Chapter 2

Shocked cries of disbelief mixed with cheers, one voice rose above the din. "I object to this conspiracy!" Said Equius.

"Do you have a sane reason, shithead?" Karkat said.

"Are you aware of the potential results of such a radical action?" 

"It would eliminate a tyrannical bitch who's been running our lives since we stuck our infant pegs on this putrid ball of dirt."

Equius shifted uncomfortably, "No, this can't happen. It will devolve into complete chaos, what will we do without a queen?"

Enough of this, better cut this asshole off before he can run his pretentious mouth. "Fuck you. I would rather drill torque fasteners through my auricular sponge clots than listen to your bullshit."

"What if-"

"Nope. Shut the fuck up and leave, Zahhak. In fact, so can everyone else. I'm done here."

Once more, the redblood needed solitude.

As soon as they were out of the block, Nepeta addressed her best friend. "I understand why you're worried, but can't you just go along with this? Until it's ofur?"

"No, this is... discomforting. Do you know how long wars can drag on?"

"I don't care how uncomfurtable you are!" She said. "Please don't be mean to anyone, okay? Especially him." 

He muttered something, but she didn't ask what he said. In fact, she didn't want to hear it. "Are you listening?"

"Yes."

"I didn't want to drag you into this," said Nepeta, "but we're in this together now. They killed your lusus and you will be murdered if you tell on us."

The man said nothing, the girl took his large, muscular hand with both of hers. "We'll be fine."

"Do you know how large the fleet is? They'll crush us."

"We have to try." They were silent for a moment, then Nepeta hugged him and said brightly, "AC must go! She needs to tell Karkat she is sorry."

He let her go, giving up the usual talk of how she shouldn't fraternize with people below her so frequently.

***

He was on the sky deck, sitting between two turrets with his legs dangling off the circular edge, leaning on the lowest rung on the railing with his chin resting on his arms. Above, the moons illuminated the world with hazy tinted light. The stealth shield rippled like water, shimmering and distorting the desolate coastline.

Nepeta peered out from under the hatch, gathering the courage to talk to him. She took a step up, CREAK! The rusted metal squealed and Karkat looked over his shoulder. Thud! The hatch closed.

"You can come out. I saw you."

It opened all the way, she scrambled up.

Karkat returned to his former position, slouching. "Sit next to me if you want."

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yeah."

However awkward she felt, the girl had to say something.

She took her seat. "I apawlogize for kissing you." Silence. "I know it upset you. I shouldn't have done that and I'm sorry."

"Intruding on someone's personal space then sucking their face during a mental breakdown is pretty damn rude." Oh no, was she bothering him? "But it's okay."

Abashed, she stared down at her shoes. His scowl softened. "Look, I know how you feel about me. I just don't know if I can reciprocate those feelings, at least not right now. Not until we're safe. I... I don't want to fall in love just to lose you. Understood?"

Nepeta's heart fluttered painfully. She swallowed. "Okay."

"And I'm sorry for snapping at you and everyone else all the time."

"You can't help it, can you?" They looked at each other again. 

"Raging is a hobby of mine." He chuckled derisively at himself, "What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you. If I were you, I would be mad at everything too." 

"I wish I wasn't. I'm fucking sick and tired of it all. Irritated. Have you ever loved something and hated it at the same time? That's how I feel about Alternia."

Nepeta nodded, "I know what you mean. At least we can fix it."

Wearily, Karkat asked, "I promise to try, but how am I supposed to succeed if I couldn't even keep everybody alive? Terezi was right next to me, all I had to do was keep track of her." His voice cracked. "I couldn't even do that."

"You saved Pawlicks. That's something, you're not a failure."

He cringed, "Did you see them? I think they could've moved in a more orderly way. If only I had directed them without running and panicking like a herd animal. God, I'm so useless." Karkat folded his arms again and glared at the water.

"No you're not! Anyway, that whole thing was my fault. I wasn't watching what I was saying and suddenly they were trying to kill me."

"Oh. That's another thing."

Uh-oh.

Karkat continued, "Whatever happened, happened. You didn't know you could've fucked up so badly. No one could have."

That's all? "I should've been more careful."

"I could've talked you into staying."

Lots of things could've been different. It was time to end the self-blame and move on.

"If you really want me to say so, I forgive you for everything."

Silence fell on them again. After a moment of gazing at the stars, Nepeta spoke again. "So how are you going to kill the queen?"

The boy sat up straight and alert, ready to share the plot still in its infancy. "I have to get with Sollux on that when he's up for it. I think he can hack the ship's computer, I'll get us in and find a spot for ambush or use bombs. That would ground the ship and command center as well as delay the arrival of the fleet." 

"We have a lot to do." The girl said softly.

"Hell yeah. Speaking of bombs," said Karkat, "Are you sure the cave was demolished?"

Nepeta sighed, "I heard an explosion. I saw a pillar of dust and smoke on the horizon shortly after we escaped. I guess it was."

He frowned. "Well, shit. At least we took a lot of pictures. We should write down what we know. We're going to have to distribute it. Too bad we don't know any of The Sufferer's old speeches. I bet they were great."

"Yours will be great, too." She smiled reassuringly.

"Whatever."

After that they didn't speak, although they both wanted to know what the other was thinking. Instead, they were content to savor the serenity before the storm together.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I should get rid of this chapter or not. ._. Should I keep it? Should I move it to the first chapter?

Almost obsessively, the captain watched over his beloved ship. Ah, there was the engine's feed. The Helmsman, suspended in a life that should have ended long ago, was asleep. No charges sparked off of him. Undoubtedly, no escape attempts were plotted. He hadn't pulled one since The Soulless became captain of Battleship Condescension. At least it wasn't going anywhere, it was anchored to the homeworld, resting in the ocean. Sometimes the engine would try to steer it in an attempt to destroy itself, to fly toward peaceful oblivion. To a star, an asteroid field, _anything_ if it meant destruction. The captain would not let that happen. Everything needed his attention, it must be checked. Scan the security feeds. Watch that miserable witch in the cramped cell. Still asleep. Good. If only she could be interrogated further. The conditions just weren't right. The subject needed to recover from her last interrogation.

Speaking of interrogations, the captain commanded a particular video file to appear on-screen.

Soldiers had captured five children from the incident the girl in the brig had a part in. The heretical writing had been erased by force and fire, but these little pests were still alive and even more were out of the captain's reach. The ships full of new troops and workers were scheduled to leave soon, so they couldn't send out many search parties. A handful of volunteers scanned the skies for the forgotten old ship, but alas they were too few.

The first was a video of a mute brownblood at the age of four. He was placed in a precautionary psychic containment booth, a small projectile proof box with a cushioned interior. The reach of the mind was confined within it. The boy was interrogated, but all he could do was cry in confusion. After an hour of useless questioning, a laser projected from the wall fired, leaving a neat little hole in his head.

What a waste. According to his records, he was an empath. In addition to that, he could share his thoughts through touch. If those morons had checked, they could have gathered information from him before he was culled.

The next one was a girl, a rustblood. Her silence held, no matter who threatened her.

"If you tell us who they were, we'll let you live." Said the interrogator.

Unlike the boy before her, she could speak. Her last word was, "No."

The third child was a stuttering, shy mess who participated readily. Her lip and palate was cleft, a common hatch defect among olivebloods. Only cleft lips were permissible. It was easier to kill her than fix her, so she would be dead in a few sweeps anyway. She was doing so well, they might let her go if temporary safety keeps her talking.

"Who hid you?" The tealblood interrogator's voice crackled over the microphone.

"Th-there were three girls and a boy. They did something to my brain and forced me t-to walk. They took me to a cave and promised we would all be okay for some reason." She was somewhat hard to understand 

"What did you do in your time of captivity?"

"N-nothing. Well, we played games and made friends and w-we weren't allowed outside." She paused. "T-there was this one guy. Very loud. His symbol was g-gray and he was..." The girl trembled uneasily, careful of what she was going to say. "Um, really weird."

"How?"

"Well uh, his b-blood was red."

"Like rust?"

"No." Her eyes narrowed "H-he showed us. It was really bright, like... like dye or-or something." 

The interrogator's head suddenly snapped up from his sheet of questions. "Can you draw his symbol?" 

A small platform that acted as a desk popped in front of her chair. Compartments slid open, releasing paper and a writing utensil. Quickly, she sketched two tailed circles laying next to each other, then held it up.

His eyes widened in recognition. "Did he talk to you about anything?"

"H-he read us stories about his a-ancestor and stuff. I-I didn't pay attention."

"What was his name?"

She answered, "Karkat Vantas."

Pause. That is all he needed to know for now. He searched a database of every child on Alternia as well as who was taken to the ships. No results. The boy's name, sign, and blood color were unregistered. What an incredibly rare instance. 

The construction drone records brought him up. He lived in a standard hive at 1481 in the 314th district. No pictures of him were available. The Soulless had a suspicion that illegal hacking and cospiracy played a role in allowing a mutant to slip through the cracks. Worse, this particular one lived into adulthood and stirred up trouble. 

He may be out of the empire's grasp, but the old captain vowed to use his dying years to catch him.

***

Vriska Serket was awake. For a second, she thought she was on the steel table, but it was a different slab. The cement box she was in was small, with bars on one side. A sink and a cleansing basin were at the other end. This was a captive enclosure.

Her clothes had been replaced by light, paper-thin pants and a tunic the same color as her blood. The arm stump was wrapped up, no longer bleeding. Carefully, she touched the stitches on her belly under the bandages. Nice, tight and clean they were. Someone thought she was valuable enough to save, or she was going to go on trial.

No time to think about why she was here. The only objective is to get out. Surely, there is a camera. Better not look too active. The woman could hear the ship's crew loud and clear, some were louder than others. She felt them thinking. Eventually, Vriska found a mind and wedged herself into it. Ah ha! A guard. A guard with keys! But no, it was too soon to escape. This plan needed more thought.

Her victim had a mind-to-computer interface, currently online. This guy had Trollian as a chat client, so she logged in. She made him think about the characters she wanted to write, her mind's fingers prodded the mental keyboard.

\-- arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix[GA] \--

AG: I just want to let you know I'm alive. I don't know where I am exactly, but I'm in the 8rig on a battleship, may8e aw8ting trial?

AG: I can't talk for now. Don't worry a8out me, I'll 8re8k out of here in no time.

AG: Please don't reply to this.

\-- arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling grimAuxiliatrix[GA] \--

She logged out. That is all she wrote. Vriska let the guard go. Confused, he asked where he was, shook his head and kept walking.


	4. Chapter 4

The ship was downright chaotic. Some kids were always at each other's throats, especially the older ones. There were at least five blooming kismesissitudes with no ashen friction between pairs. Fights broke out constantly, and the racket made Karkat's persistent headaches worse. 

The sickbay was full of injured people, the pain of others made him uncomfortable. The block was divided between the recovering and those who simply used it to sleep. Curtains between beds provided little privacy. None of the medical equipment worked anymore, but if it did it would be so unsafe to use. If only he knew how to help. 

Eventually, he found the captain's respite block below the bridge. Cypsel didn't want it, so it was open. As soon as he cleaned it up, he dragged in a cushion to sleep on. The space was very small and sterile-looking, but it was solitary and provided a safer place to keep the printed photographs from the cave. A hacker could easily break into his computer and delete them all, but the hard copies were here to stay. 

He sat at the sleek, minimalist desk that popped out of the wall when he needed it. This ship was not intended to live in, but rather transport people and small loads of cargo over short distances in a matter of days, so it wasn't too fancy.

Before he was going to speak to the audience again, he got his notes together, taking one last look at a particular passage. Accidentally, he glimpsed the rest of the poem from the shrine. He considered giving it another read, but his mind told him there was nothing to see in the way a person might lie about the scene of an accident to keep for the safety of others. What it said frightened him, even though he thought it might not come true. No one else knew about it, except for maybe Nepeta. It was his secret.

A slender finger pushed a little white button. The ancient PA system relayed his message. "Everyone interested in today's talk, lesson, speech, whatever it is, report to the rumpus block in fifteen minutes."

Karkat made his way there to find a knot of trolls and a powered up overhead projector. Ancient machinery. It may have been outdated when the ship was in the fleet. Somehow it survived in the ship's storage hull. 

Nepeta lounged with Pounce near the front of the group. The boy asked her, "These are the only assholes who showed up?"

"Yep." She was playing a dating sim on a handheld.

"We had high attendance last time."

"That's because efurryone wanted to know if their lusus was okay." The troll shrugged.

Karkat counted only fifteen people, including himself and his friends. Those who had listened to him before suddenly had better things to do. Kanaya stood by the projector ready to cooperate. He handed the photographs to her. "If you ever want to get up there and speak, let me know."

Kanaya evened the rest of the stack and put the first picture in place. "Yes. In fact, I'm searching for a subject. I believe I'm onto something pertaining to the premature culling of grubs."

"Great. It's important that this shithole in the sky is more than just a refuge of broken cowards. We need to teach and arm them." 

She smiled, "Then get up there already. You're talented with words, but please be kind with them."

He nodded. "I'll try."

Karkat stood with his hands behind his back. Or maybe his hips. Which pose looked better? He kept shifting his position awkwardly until he noticed a boy talking animatedly to a smiling and familiar girl with a child on her lap. He learned her name was Nekkar Vodion and the kid was Kuneho Lievre. The chatterbox was a fair-featured, extremely thin oliveblood who wore round glasses.

"Yeah, he likes percussion a lot." said Nekkar.

"I play some squeal pipe. Oh, maybe we can start a band!" He gestured as if he was playing a small flute.

"Excuse me. Hey! Shut up!"

The boy looked up, "Oh, sorry!" He squeaked. 

Sigh. Karkat said, "I don't recognize you, what's your name?"

"Luyten Kanisa." said the boy.

"Luyten. Can you stay quiet?"

He folded his legs, placed his hands in his lap and stared straight at Karkat. "Yep!" 

"Alright, let's get started." A picture flopped into view behind him and the young man spoke. "We're wrapping up the personal history of The Sufferer, if I recall. A sweep before his death, he predicted my life and what I would do with it. Right now, that prophecy is for my knowledge only."

The doors opened, a girl pushing herself on a skateboard rolled in. "You're late." said Karkat.

"So what?" Cypsel rolled to the back of the room. She was one of the last people he expected to listen to him. "I doubt I missed anythin."

"I will tell you this. He called for us to fight and speak up for ourselves. How many of you have a reason to? Hold that in your mind." He seemed at ease, hands positioned as if he was holding a ball. Without a pressing urge to do anything, he didn't feel pressured to force action onto anyone. The operation was just beginning anyway. No reason to yell or even get angry. "Tell me your reason. As long as it's a good one and you're in solidarity with us, I don't give a fuck. I just want to know why so few of you are here."

Nekkar was about to speak when the seadweller said, "You know you don't stand a chance."

"Excuse me?" said Karkat.

"What kind of a plan do you have? Do you know how tight the security on the Battleship Condescension is? This ain't no boneyard break in."

"I know it's not. Anyway, I have some thoughts about the hemospectum-"

"That's also a load of crap." She interrupted him again. 

"Then why the hell are you here?"

"To save my legless hide. This ship could keep flyin if we wanted it to. The nuclear fusion drive has decades of sweeps to burn. We're invisible. I am the best pilot on this planet. I can out maneuver anything, no matter what kind of ship I'm flying." 

"I'm impressed. I've never met such an infinitesimal mind inside such an enormous nug bone before." Karkat closed his hands tightly and took a deep breath. "No. We can't keep running for the rest of our lives! I don't know about you, but I don't want to live a pointless and dangerous existence in the sky."

"What are you going to do after Her Imperial Condescension is dead?" She laughed, "The empire isn't going to just take a hit and die."

No one had thought that far ahead. "I don't fucking know! As long as the assassination does any kind of damage, it'll be worth it." Karkat said. 

"If you kill her, you'll commit genocide against the ruling caste. We'll be without an empress for the first time in our history!" Cypsel reasoned.

"That's kind of the point, moron." 

"But-"

Nekkar interjected, "Be quiet, please! If you want to argue with him, do it on your own time." 

The seadweller glared a the girl and the little boy. She wrinkled her nose and spat, "You and him. How does that arrangement work? You're not a lusus. He's just your pet retard." 

Equally disgusted, "He's not retarded! Who cares if he was anyway? He just has problems with senses and his surroundings and he doesn't talk a lot. Kuneho is a person with good soul, of course I'm going to protect him."

"I agree with her!" Said another girl, nodding toward Nekkar.

"Yeah me too!" Luyten chirped.

"WILL EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Karkat rubbed the bridge of his nose as his head began to pound. "Volans. Get your shittalking ass out of here." Under his breath he added, "I am so fucking done."

The rustblood grinned, "We're going to win this battle, you'll see!"

Karkat stumbled out of the block. Nepeta hopped up to ask where he was going.

He hear Cypsel say, "Did you see his half-naked breakdown? He's pathetic! Like I'm going to listen to that hideous mu-"

"Enough!" Kanaya put her hands up. "Cypsel, If you do not wish to take part in all of this and you're only here for your own amusement, do not interfere with us. In fact..." She turned her gaze toward the other girl. "Miss Vodion expressed interest in learning how to fly. The closing topic of the discussion would have been the theft of more ships, so we need more of us who are skilled in aeronautics."

"No! I'm not going to let her filthy hands touch steering apparatus of my ship!"

"Teach her or we will revoke your piloting privileges." 

The young woman's jaw nearly the floor. "You can't do that! What would you do without me?"

"We'll learn how to fly ourselves. And don't think you'll stay here. We'll drop you back into the ocean and in another sweep or two you can kiss your precious sky goodbye." Kanaya said coldly. 

That earned Cypsel's begrudging cooperation and silence. Kanaya took over the presentation Karkat had prepared. She collected the notes he left behind and began to tell the ending of the story of The Sufferer.

"Don't let her shout you down like that!" Nepeta called after Karkat.

With agitation, "I shouldn't have done this today. I'm not ready." He pressed on his eyes. "Shit, this hurts!"

"Why not go back in there when your headache goes away?"

"They don't respect me. I have to find another way to earn it. I'm not going to do that by talking at them. Besides, I have other things to do. Have you seen Sollux?"

"No. Isn't he in the sickbay?"

"He got up and left this morning."

"Then go find him." 

"That's what I'm doing. Don't follow me." Karkat said. He retreated to his block to rest instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though I use it in my fics, I don't like the r-word. But it makes sense in context because Alternia is a heavily ableist society. 
> 
> I have no idea why MSPA uses it so much. That's the only thing I don't like about it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know nothing about hacking or computers so I'm just going to bullshit my way through whatever Sollux is doing, now and in the future. I know this is poor form and if you can help me, that would be great.

Fortunately, he did not have to search. His friend found him. Karkat's nap was interrupted by creaking door hinges and the glow of a computer. "KK. Wake up."

A shoe nudged his back. "UUugghhhmmm... no."

Kick.

"Ow, fuck!" Karkat rolled over as Sollux sat down next to him. "Go away, my think pan hurts."

"Shut up. You don't know shit about headaches." He was typing so quickly, moving with twitchy energy and excitement. "I have something for you to see, it's important."

If whatever Sollux did or saw was enough to reboot him, it must be worth a look. He sat up, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Alright. Check it." He turned the screen toward him.

"What am I looking at?"

"Screenshots. There has been a lot of gossip and backlash on social networking sites against The Condesce and the empire in general. Most of it has been censored and taken down, but I dug up the banned tags and recovered a lot of posts, even a web page." Clearly, he was feeling much better. "There is so much there. The outrage is phenomenal."

Karkat flitted from one image to the next, switching between windows. "You're enjoying it, aren't you?"

Sollux frowned and said nothing.

"Eridan killed your girlfriend and gave The Condesce an unfair victory. That shit wasn't supposed to happen. Maybe he was manipulated? Hey is there footage of the whole duel?" He glanced at his friend, noticing the slumped shoulders and silence. "Sorry."

He just wanted to get absorbed into hacking and coding again. Keeping busy delayed the inevitable crash. "I'll be fine. Are you reading? All of those tags got banned and everything has been shut down, but I managed to dig up a lot of it. Take it as proof trolls want change. It's like a roiling slop basin full of rage out there, just waiting to boil over and make a huge mess."

"Do you know what happened to the girl who killed Eridan?"

"The hung her immediately afterward."

"Mhm." Karkat scanned the paragraphs and scraps saved from various social media sites. They said things like-

Down? With? The? Empire? Yes!   
-* can't bel-*eve what -* just saw. Th-*s -*s s-*cken-*ng. #empress duel #unfa-*r v-*ctory #death to H-*C   
I have no comment &ut i will add to this new tag &ecause I agree with it #death to HIC   
=.=>> I had such high hopes. #wtfempress   
I WOULD K1LL THAT $ON OF A B1TCH 1F HE WA$N'T ALREADY DEAD! #the assass1n #death to H1C #death to the emp1re # death everywhere #let'$ burn th1$ fucker down

This was only a fistful of what inhabitants of Alternia wrote about their empress. The brainwashing was only just beginning to set in, they were too young to know how quickly they could be tracked. Fortunately there was no way everyone with such opinions could be scrubbed from the population.

All Karkat could do was stare. Finally, Sollux said something. "The kindling is there, we just have to light it."

His friend asked, "Is that a fire metaphor for revolution?"

"Hell yes."

"Got a sulfur twig?"

"I have so many sulfur twigs, it's a wonder I'm not erupting into flames. We need an extinguisher up in this bitch in case of emergency."

"I'll take them off your spazmatic hands."

Sollux sat up straighter, ready to dispense information. "We need to start small. Obviously, this is not going to end when we kill the empress. That will be only the beginning."

Karkat cringed, "Are you planning some sort of needless dangerous operation? Why don't we trample the crossing trestle when we get to it?"

"You're an idiot. We need to think ahead on this shit! Be quiet, I'm not done talking." He cleared his throat and continued. "We need to amass an army so we can attack. It's feasible, with the ship theft. We have the time, it might take sweeps to get a small fleet here. The first step will be to let people know a resistance exists."

"How the hell are we going to do that when anything you put up gets censored immediately?" Karkat asked.

"There are places on the internet they can't reach."

He knew what Sollux was talking about. "Fuck no! There's nothing but drug deals and unmentionable sick shit down there!"

"The plan is to post a manifesto of sorts and draw some attention to us. We'll put it on the deep web, where it is free of the prying look stubs of The Condesce's cronies." Sollux shrugged.

WIth alarm, "Attention from child traffickers! A lot of trolls are dangerous and these people are my responsibility. I don't need a slimeball necrophiliac helping us out, no matter how good they are at slitting throats and making armor." Karkat said.

"We'll be careful of who we contact. I think we might find people who have similar goals. I already found a site where you can trace your ancestry and one that tracks how many people have been culled, so there's a hint of anti-empire sentiment. It's a very easy place to find criminal hackers." The yellowblood explained calmly.

"Why do we need more hackers? We have you and me."

"Ehehehehe, you don't count as a hacker."

"Shut the fuck up! I write viruses!"

Sollux smirked, "Your coding and encryptions are indistinguishable from the garble a cat makes when it walks across a keyboard. You really shouldn't be allowed near computers. Every time you touch them, I can hear them cry out in dismay."

"Maybe that's your mutant brain picking up radio signals." Karkat said.

The other boy shrugged, "Besides, there has to be someone better than me out there."

After a moment of silence, "You and I both know that's bullshit."

"Look, KK, this is all we have so far. We might be able to do more when we have more firepower on our side. We have to start somewhere."

He gave in with sarcasm, "Fine. Let's hire the worst criminals! We'll need plenty of murderers at our disposal because we're obviously short of vile backstabbers!"

"You forgot what defines a criminal in this shithole. We fit the definition, for example. This is only a starting point, get to work."

Karkat said something to himself and scooted to the end of the mattress. He shuffled through his belongings and retrieved his computer. Sollux took that as a "Look I'm doing it, asshole". Suddenly feeling very tired once more, he thought about staying to talk, but he just wanted to lie down again. Both boys were going through similar turmoil, the loss of a lover. Whether they were former or present at the time of their death didn't matter, they both loved them.

Once his friend left, the leader tried to get lost in thought as his fingers rested on the keys. Kanaya's voice interrupted him, "May I come in?"

"Sure, why not throw a fucking party in here!"

She peeked around the door "Is this a bad time?"

He growled, "Get out."

"Oh. Alright."

"No, wait!" Karkat didn't mean it. He got another look at her face. Brightness had returned to her eyes.

"I don't want to disturb you."

"Disturb me all you want," he surrendered. "I'm the leader, everyone has to talk to me about plans and whatnot." Karkat gave up on going back to sleep.

"I just want to inform you that Vriska is alive." She was obviously very happy, but agitated, tightly clasping hands.

"How? Do you know where she is?"

"She may have forced someone to type for her, she messaged me. She said she might be on a battleship and the only battleship in the vicinity of our planet is Battleship Condescension. They captured her."

"It might be a trap."

Kanaya considered this, "But it sounded just like her an it was directly from her account. I was wondering if we could rescue her before we kill the queen."

Well, Vriska was useful. She could keep helping, as long as she didn't turn around and betray them or do something stupid just to feed her ravenous ego. She was an ally and an asset worth saving and the risk. "Maybe. We'll see what we can do. In the next three days we'll steal another ship and on the last day of The Condesce's stay, we'll break in."

She nodded, "Right. Sollux told me he was thinking of finding a team of hackers and picking them up soon, perhaps the day prior to that? He told me to tell you to draw up a manifesto if he couldn't reach you."

"I know. I'm working on it. How did it go after I left?"

She sighed, "Well, they settled down and listened. I'm afraid a few of them didn't understand why some things must be done, such as war preparation."

"They'll learn." He stared at the blank document page and tried to think of words. He decided not to type with his quirk and keep the language clean and professional. Although, there is pretty much no way no one in the empire suspects him. They should know he went missing.

Kanaya watched him type for a moment. "You seemed troubled earlier."

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"It was another stress-induced headache, or after effects of being poisoned. Nothing serious. I just need to calm down." He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "You can go now."

"How are you holding up?"

Karkat didn't answer right away. He thought of lies to get around her fussing and prying. He thought too long.

"I know how you feel. Distraught. Angry. Sad. She was your friend and you loved her, but it's important to keep going. I know your will to live is strong, otherwise you would've lain down like an overworked horse until the next cart came to crush you."

His scowl relaxed and dissolved and he spoke softly. "Terezi has become my own personal martyr. This is giving me extra motivation, Kanaya. But if I lose anybody else, I don't know what I'll do."

She said, "I think you need someone to live for and something to look forward to." The girl glanced at his computer, "I'll leave you to that."

He got an idea, "Wait! I want you to read this over the intercom."

"Why can't you do it yourself?"

"Because everybody on this flying deathtrap likes you and I'm a fucking joke."

She laughed, "Oh, there is admiration for you as well!"

"Just do it for me, I don't have the energy."

"Although I wish you would do it yourself, you _can_ do it yourself, I'll read your manifesto."

"Thank you. Shut the door when you leave." He said. In a moment, he was alone in the dark. Digging into his heart and mind, finding the right words to say, Karkat began to type.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Troll ancestry.com is totally illegal and on the troll deep web. Yep.


	6. Chapter 6

Within five hours, it was finished. Karkat carefully worded his statement and handed it off to Sollux. They posted it and waited. 

When Karkat located her, Kanaya was sewing a cute little doll together in the sickbay, even though this was the time she usually slept. He thrust three pages of chickenscratch in front of her. "Here, it's done."

They returned to the captain's block. Kanaya spoke into the microphone, "How many of you have suffered under the heavy hand of the empire? How many of you have lost someone close to you because another troll felt pressured to murder? Have you felt the need to kill, or were you forced to kill in necessity or self defense? How many have you killed, period?"

Children playing in the common rooms kept playing and talking, but a few began to listen with curiosity. "How many of you regret it?"

"Many of us can handle this way of life, but I assure you it isn't the only way. Our 'kill or be killed' mentality stems from needless violence. Violence that can be dissolved."

Maybe trolls weren't naturally violent. Maybe only some were. "How many of you have been threatened? If you never murdered, would you?" Her voice remained calm and clear. Her friend watched her. She could almost feel the passion he wanted to deliver the words with, but was too tentative to do it himself. 

"Personally, I, or the writer of this document, am sick of hiding and sick of preparing myself for death. I am sick of worrying about my friends and enemies alike." Kanaya paused and glanced at him. 

He flicked his hand, "Keep going." 

"Do you face a bleak future that holds nothing but death or slavery? Are you crippled? Are you a lowblood? Do you simply live outside of societal expectations, dear artists and dreamers?" She whispered, "That is well-worded."

"I borrowed it." Karkat said.

Kanaya continued, "No one deserves the future that is presented by the empire. There are rumors of species from across the galaxy who live in peace with other civilizations, or they once did before they were conquered by Alternians. Do you not find that kind of peace desirable, with no more pointless bloodshed?”

She moved onto the next paragraph, reading steadily, “There is a root to all of our problems and that is the one holding the blade of the guillotine above your bare squeal pipette. Her Imperial Condescension must be dealt with. Freedom was ripped from our fingers with the murder of the princess, granting her an unfair victory. In retaliation we will take her life and leave our species without a leader."

A murmur shivered through the ship, an echo of the confusion of the first announcement of the assassination plans. Kanaya kept talking. "That is until we establish new rule within a sweep. The ensuing chaos after the death of the empress can only benefit us and buy us time before the interstellar fleet arrives. We estimated the nearest ship's arrival time to be two sweeps. With this new rule will come a new age of equality where trolls are not forced to kill, go to war, or take a job they do not want or worse, be exploited and enslaved."

Kanaya read the last sentence in the middle of the second page. "Tomorrow, we will take the first step in amassing a fleet of our own. We're stealing another ship to use in battle when the fleet turns on the homeworld. Truly, it is only the start and we as a people have a long way to go before we can break the chains from our wrists. Expect war. Expect bloodshed. Prepare for victory."

"Stop there." Karkat said.

"Why?"

"Because the rest of it is targeted toward the help we're looking for."

Kanaya was a ware that this was almost exactly what he told the audience before. It was as if he wanted to get his message across more effectively for them and the wider audience. "Very well." she said to him. Louder, "That will be all, thank you-"

"Wait!" Karkat darted toward the mic on the desk "I would like to see Cypsel and Nekkar in two hours on the bridge. We need to talk about stealing ships and teaching a new pilot in a brief time-frame. We have one planetary rotation to prepare."

"Thank you for listening and have a wonderful day." Kanaya turned off the intercom.

"It's a little propagandistic." She tapped the papers against the desk and returned them to their author.

"What else can we do? Our game won't be as fucking atrocious as theirs, but a few moves have to be mirrored." Karkat pocketed his work. "I should check on my lusus."

The rest of the memo, at least the key parts, read as such:

We are looking for hackers and anyone with other valuable skills and knowledge, such has spying and other forms of recon work, as well as flight and combat skills. We do not care how old you are or how warm or cold your blood is, as long as you make yourself useful. Two days from now, gather at Cape Marquise on the end of the peninsula, on the high hill. 

Background checks might be carried out, if possible. Betrayal will be punished by death. Yet, why would you do that? Don't you want freedom? Each one of us is tortured by the empire and we must unite to overthrow it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dusts off fic* Yeah, yeah. I'm still working on it. Don't worry. 
> 
> I hate this chapter. I might come back to it.


End file.
